The Hungry Stones by Rabindranath Tagore
"The Hungry Stones" is a short story by Rabindranath Tagore that explores themes of illusion, desire, and the supernatural within a historical context. The narrative is framed as a first-person account, beginning and ending with an unnamed traveler returning to Calcutta after a Hindu pilgrimage. While waiting for a train at a junction, he encounters a learned man named Srijut, who shares his haunting experience in an ancient, deserted palace built centuries ago by an emperor.
Srijut, who is appointed to a government position, dismisses warnings about the eerie palace. He becomes entranced by visions of a harem and the sounds of a bygone era, blurring the lines between reality and fantasy. As he experiences unsettling dreams and encounters a mysterious Persian girl, he wrestles with the seductive call of the past. However, after a series of disturbing events, he ultimately chooses to leave the palace, only to find himself drawn back to its haunting allure.
The story culminates in a revelation about the palace's curse, which preys upon those who linger too long, suggesting that the remnants of unfulfilled desires can trap individuals within the stones. Tagore’s narrative intricately weaves elements of ghostly intrigue and psychological depth, inviting readers to reflect on the complexities of longing and the fleeting nature of reality.
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The Hungry Stones by Rabindranath Tagore
First published: "Kshudita Pashan," 1895 (English translation, 1916)
Type of plot: Ghost story, frame story
Time of work: The late nineteenth or early twentieth century
Locale: India
Principal Characters:
The narrator , who is returning to Calcutta with his kinsmanSrijut , a man whom the narrator meets while waiting for a trainMeher Ali , a madman whose shouting wakens SrijutKarim Khan , an old man who works in Srijut's office
The Story
"The Hungry Stones" uses two first-person narratives. It begins and ends with the voice of an unnamed narrator, who describes himself as a traveler returning to Calcutta on a train with his kinsman from a puja, or Hindu religious pilgrimage. While waiting at a junction for the train, the narrator and his kinsman meet a man who impresses them with his learning and knowledge of current events. The man, Srijut, launches into his own story, which becomes the main part of the tale.
When he was young, Srijut recalls, he was appointed collector of cotton duties at Barich. Nearby stood a marble palace that had been built 250 years earlier by the emperor Mahmud Shah II. Karim Khan, an old clerk in Srijut's office, warned the young man not to stay in the palace. Srijut ignored him. After staying in the palace for less than a week, the young man began to hear footsteps and the sounds of maidens running to bathe in the nearby river.
Although during the day, Srijut's nighttime experience seemed like a fantasy, before dark he was drawn back to the palace, leaving his work unfinished. Entering a spacious hall at the top of a staircase, he heard the sounds of fountains, strange music, and tinkling anklets. His normal identity began to seem an illusion until his servant entered and left a lamp. After going to sleep, however, he was awakened and led through the palace by an Arabian or Persian girl, who seemed to him like someone out of a tale from Alf layla wa-layla (fifteenth century; The Arabian Nights' Entertainments, 1706-1708). She took him past a black eunuch. As Srijut attempted to step over the eunuch's legs, the guard woke up and dropped his sword. Suddenly, Srijut was back on his camp bed and could hear the shouting of Meher Ali, a local madman.
Srijut says that he began to feel a separation between his nights and his days. During the day, he was tired and his nightly fantasies seemed empty. During the night, however, his English-style clothes and his job seemed petty and unimportant. He would wander through the palace, hearing the music and other sounds and sometimes seeing a reflection of the Persian girl in a mirror. One night, he heard a voice crying out from the foundation of the palace, begging him to rescue her. As he was wondering about the voice of the young woman and asking how he could rescue her, the scream of the madman Meher Ali, shouting "Stand back" and "All is false," broke his fantasy again. Srijut decided he could no longer stay in the palace and moved back to his office.
By evening, Srijut began to long to go back to the palace. When he returned to it, though, it seemed dark and desolate, as if he had deserted it. He had the impression of a woman with blood on her face lying under a bed. He wandered through the dark palace, hearing Meher Ali's shouts from outside. In the morning, he ran back to Karim Khan at the office. The old man explained to him that unsatisfied desires and passions in the old times had made the stones of the palace thirsty. They swallowed anyone who stayed more than three nights. The only exception was Meher Ali, who had been driven mad. Karim Khan began to explain that there was only one way to escape the curse and began to tell the tragic story of a Persian girl who had lived in the palace.
At this point in the story, the voice of the original narrator returns. The train arrives and an Englishman in a first-class compartment sees Srijut, recognizes him, and invites him into his compartment. Because the narrator and his kinsman are traveling second class, they cannot hear the end of the story, and the narrator complains that the stranger was making fools of them with his story. Mysteriously, the narrator remarks that the conversation that followed began a lifelong break between himself and his kinsman, a theosophist.